Gold Flat Amid Firm Dollar

3/26/2012 7:08 AM ET

The price of gold was little changed Monday morning amid a generally firm U.S. dollar.

Gold for April delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged down $1.00 to $1,661.30 an ounce. Last week, gold ended flat after dipping to a 2-month low as the dollar strengthened while commodity prices dropped on some weak economic data from China and euro zone, fueling further concerns of an economic slowdown.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,282.69 tons.

This morning, the U.S. dollar was paring its recent losses versus the euro and sterling, while ticking higher against the Swiss franc and the yen. The euro dipped even after a report showed that the business confidence in Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, improved in March.

In economic news from the euro zone, German business confidence improved to 109.8 in March from 109.7 a month ago, the Munich-based Ifo institute reportedly said. The index stayed above the expected reading of 109.5. Meanwhile, the current conditions index remained at 117.4. Economists were expecting the index to fall to 117. The expectations index rose to 102.7 from 102.4 in February. The reading matched economists' expectations.

Elsewhere, the price of silver was moving lower, while platinum was ticking higher in morning deals.

From the U.S., the National Association of Realtors will come out with its data on pending home sales, which is a leading indicator of housing market activity at 10 a.m. ET. The index is expected to have risen 1 percent in February following a better than expected 2 percent increase in January.